Debate a Central Part of Political Simulation

From http://blogs.bftf.org/blog/2008/07/25/multi-media-political-debate-outstanding/

The Ben Franklin Diplomats continued their week of political simulation today with a public debate designed to educate voters in advance of the important vote to determine Loudenia’s Leader of Parliament. Five candidates, each representing one of Loudenia’s major political parties gave speeches and answered questions during the debate, hosted by Loudenia Crier Editor-in-chief Flandra Syla.

The debate provided a fascinating exercise in multimedia “convergence,” with real-time polling, live blogging, and YouTube video questions submitted by Loudenian citizens prior to the event. The rich media environment yielded several intriguing twists. For example, the final straw poll showed LFTP candidate Uche Esonu leading the field with 43% of the vote, but in a result that illustrated the fickle nature of political polls, Ms. Esonu was ultimately bested in a second-ballot runoff by LFD candidate Alexandrea Datii. Ms. Datii will preside over sessions of parliament scheduled for next Monday and Tuesday, when Loudenia’s assembly will consider a slate of legislation currently being refined in parliamentary committees.

Debate participants received high marks from citizens for their keen questions, concise and informative answers, as well as for keeping their poise in the face of distractions. Early in the debate, a group of demonstrators stormed the stage to protest “junk media” coverage of political affairs in the country. In fact, the performance of Loudenia’s main news outlet, LC Media, has stirred controversia in the fictitious country, with discontent even spawning Loudenian Times a maverick, underground publication carrying sharp critiques and independent news coverage and analysis.

This entry was written by gordon and posted on July 25, 2008 at 7:53 pm and filed under Events, Classes. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.